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Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Butterscotch Finger Cakes...

Today was an interesting day... I had to be sedated early this morning to have an endoscopy and biopsy of my esophagus/stomach area done. Nothing like starting out your day by having a tube go down your throat! And, just for future reference, those sedation drugs are pretty powerful! I can't even remember how I got dressed or down to the car to be driven home... geez!

As you know, Tuesday is the day I bake for the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day at Jeff's office. I was going to wait until tomorrow to make this week's treat, but I felt well enough this afternoon, so I went ahead and prepared these Butterscotch Finger Cakes. I probably should have just rested, but I'm really not one who can just sit down and do absolutely nothing all day... always on the move!

I don't think I've seen them here in Minnesota, but when we lived back in Maryland, Tastykake goodies seemed to be the go-to grocery market snack item. I never did get a chance to try them, but Jeff had before and did agree that these finger cakes were a pretty close clone!

Thanks to the additions of cake flour, plenty of butter, brown sugar and eggs, the thick, pale yellow batter for this cake baked up tender, soft and moist with a fine tidy crumb. After being baked and cooled slightly, the cake is turned out onto a piece of parchment paper and left to finish cooling, upside down. In doing this, the bottom will now become the top, so you'll have a very level playing surface to frost.

Because I couldn't wait, I did take a small divot from the cake to make sure it tasted well... it certainly didn't disappoint! The combination of vanilla and almond extract added a complex, yet light flavor that played on the mild caramel-esque notes from the rich brown sugar. While the cake was just fine plain, butterscotch is in the title after all and that came smashing in with a delicious frosting.

The layer of frosting on top of this cake is a mixture of melted butter and butterscotch chips that were beaten together with powdery confectioners' sugar and a bit more softened butter for a smooth finish. If for some reason it looks too thick to spread well, add a few dribbles of milk to thin it out. Just for fun, once the frosting was smeared on, we took one of those fancy cake combs to the frosting to create a wavy appearance on top. Cut them into squares if you want, but we did the more classic snack-cake style and cut them the cake into strips. Jeff noted that the frosting was a bit more firm than the fluffy frosting on those purchased cakes, but nonetheless it fit the bill and the taste was very good.

I made this recipe too--my husband, a Philly native, was disappointed. He said the cake was wrong, Tastykakes are definitely sponge cakes, not a butter cake. Delicious as a stand-alone recipe, though! Yours are beautiful.